Instead she was going to be trapped in her house trying and failing over and over and over…forever. It wasn’t just the mental and physical exhaustion; it was the pressure to be the best mom with Pinterest-perfect lunches, curated wooden toys, and a flawless bikini body.

Stop!

She didn’t have the energy reserves to mom shame herself. Instead, she shoved the pregnancy test toward the back of the top vanity drawer, splashed cold water across her face, and tried to focus. Ethan had arrived home from Boston an hour earlier, and then ducked into his home office for one final phone meeting. That left the remainder of the party chores to Sadie, and considering Ethan would have to drive down to Portland to pick up Annette at the airport early tomorrow morning, time was not on her side.

She kneaded her temples, willing the headache to go into remission. She could brew a pot of coffee and power through the exhaustion, but a pregnancy headache? That was an entirely different beast.

Those things had teeth.

Annette would no doubt arrive at the cottage looking as if she’d been at the day spa rather than on a cramped prop plane, and waste no time at all handing out the little gifts she’d packed.

“Can you believe this? Mom brought me Skyline!” Ethan would exclaim, proudly holding up the blue cans of chili, as though Annette didn’t do this every, single time. “And Montgomery Inn sauce? You shouldn’t have!”

Sadie was shocked Annette didn’t check a personal cooler on her Delta flight so she could bring her son a few pints of Graeter’s ice cream, as well. She was like some strange female version of Santa Claus, except she came bearing gifts from Southwest Ohio.

During her grumpier moods, Sadie couldn’t help but suspect Annette’s ulterior motive was to make Ethan homesick. His two siblings, Stephen and Kelly, both lived in Cincinnati with their respective families, and it killed Annette that Ethan had chosen to establish his family in Maine and not the Midwest.

“Lincoln will want to know all his cousins.” Annette loved to pout.

“And he will,” Sadie had replied confidently. “We visit every summer and Thanksgiving, remember? And everyone is always welcome here.”

Unfortunately, they hadn’t been great about their end of this promise. With Ethan’s crazy work schedule, it had been almost a year since they’d last visited Ohio. Annette likely knew how long it had been, down to the number of seconds.

And now the idea of herding two kids on a plane…she’d rather take a bath with a man-eating shark.

She pulled out her phone and reviewed her party checklist in her notes. Despite the fact that she’d been dashing around like a chicken with her head cut off, the list didn’t feel any shorter. No, it only seemed to multiply and grow. How did that math work out?

Next she needed to pick up one of those classic number birthday candles from Shopper’s Corner. Lincoln blowing out a flame atop a large number two was a perfect photo op—plus, she and Ethan would be able to look at the photos later and immediately know which birthday he’d been celebrating.